Gaming Ballistic - GURPS Content Posts

[DouglasCole]

On the other hand, a package of VTT tokens and 4" x 5" reference cards seem like something well within my skill set. Let me ponder this.

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

On the other hand, a package of VTT tokens and 4" x 5" reference cards seem like something well within my skill set. Let me ponder this.

That would also be good!

[DouglasCole]

Ballistic's Report for Week Ending Nov 19

This week was launch week for the Bestiary, and true to my word, we went live yesterday. As I type this, the Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book sits at just over $20,000 raised, with $14,000 more to go. So we had a great first day, but are still looking at picking up nearly 200 backers to fund, and 650 more to hit all the stretch goals.

Is this doable? It really ought to be. My own projects have varied between 420 and 600 backers for Dungeon Fantasy RPG projects; SJGames’ from a low of about 550 (DF Companion 2) to a high of 1,600 (the Boxed Set), with the Monsters 2 book sitting at over 1,000. The Nordlond Bestiary is “like Monsters, but more so.” I’m hopeful.

What went on this week?

• Launch day. Obviously
• I was on Talking Crit and SJGames Live. Talking Crit touched on the Bestiary but is always a wide-ranging chat; SJGames Live focused on DFRPG and the Bestiary
• I got more final art from the team, and did some pre-visualization
• I got an outstanding quote from my card printer here in MN for 120-card decks in a custom box.
• I reviewed one of the Inns and Taverns from Marshall, gave feedback, and suggested after a revision we do some Peer Review through my Patreon

Now that the project has launched, it’s “how quickly can I get the first pack of 128 creatures done, so that when we fund, I’m working stretch goals, not playing catch-up.”

[DouglasCole]

Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Dec 10

[DouglasCole]

Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Dec 17

This last week was all about getting ready for the transition to Backerkit. There’s a lot that goes on “below the waterline” to make this happen. It’s a lot like synchronized swimming: it only looks calm and graceful if you don’t look at the legs.

So, what went on?

• A lot of art direction. A lot. Something between 70 and 80 new illustrations, most of which are already underway.
• A lot of conversations on fulfillment, culminating with the decision to partner with Nord Games and ShipQuest UK to provide international and domestic fulfillment for ALL of my product, not just the hardcover books. Anything on offer will be made available to anyone. This was greatly facilitated by ShipQuest’s decision to become a formal VAT agent for the UK/EU, which is 90% of the reason I was loathe to offer anything BUT the book.
• That doesn’t mean shipping will be cheap, easy, or happy-happy-joy-joy. It won’t. But this puts the decision in the backers’ hands, where I think it belongs.
• Even more conversations with the card deck vendor, talking about boxes.
• A decision on which printer I’m using, final book page count, and number of copies.
• We are now assembling the shipping matrix and hopefully will have that all settled early next week. Followed very quickly by the survey itself.

Now it’s monsters, monsters, monsters. I actually hope to get a chunk of about 50 of them into my Patrons’ hands for review as soon as this weekend.

[DouglasCole]

Gaming Ballistic's 2021 Year in Review

Solidly profitable. Record revenue. Some friction and lessons learned. More to come in 2022!

[DouglasCole]

Pre-Order The Hardcover Fantasy Bestiary For Dungeon Fantasy RPG's Nordlond Setting

If you missed the campaign, it's not too late:*Pre-orders for the*Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book*are open until the book files go to print, probably in mid-February. Until then, you can get the*Bestiary, quick-reference cards,*Delvers to Grow, and all of Gaming Ballistic's other products in both digital and physical form via the*Backerkit pre-order system*anywhere in the world.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Gaming Ballistic's 2021 Year in Review

Solidly profitable. Record revenue. Some friction and lessons learned. More to come in 2022!

Great work. I made a comment on your page but the formatting was lost so it looks like a big blob.

[DouglasCole]

BALLISTIC’S REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING JAN 21, 2022

Wow. I haven’t done one of these since Dec 17. In a way, that’s not surprising. That week ended with Christmas, the following week ended by ringing in the new year, and the last three weeks since have effectively been nothing but Bestiary, Bestiary, Bestiary.

But there’s been great progress there.

So, what went on?

• So much spreadsheeting.
• Then more art direction and art procurement.
• I got the entire monster section of the book in preliminary layout! Every one of the intended monsters is in place, with most of the work done. I’ve got a few spell lists yet to populate. I hate those.
• We’re at 27 pending surveys. 15 of those are $1 pledges that I do not expect to convert. SIX have physical goods attached to them and if I don’t get the surveys, I’ll have to downgrade pledges. Six more are PDF-only. Only a few of those have a pending balance.
• Finally, some of my Patreon members and a few of the top backers have been running monster test-fights.
• A fellow blogger and backer wrote a review of the first 25% of the monsters from a prelim look. He liked it.

So, the next week is finishing up the PDF, and it’s starting to look pretty healthy.

[DouglasCole]

Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Feb 4, 2022

Two weeks since the last one, but a very important two weeks.
Why?
• I more or less worked something like 10 days straight, minimum 12 hours per day, to get the Bestiary preliminary Backer-ready PDF out on Tuesday.
• I did take a small breather, but I got some great errata reports from folks, corrected them, and did an update to the file. I didn’t send out emails for it, because those are annoying, but there will never be copies of the file in Backerkit…just the updated version.
• I’m still pending a few images, but I am informed by the artist that they are, in fact, finished and as soon as he gets home from The Land Bandwidth Forgot he’ll upload them for me. I’ve seen one of them, and it’s really fun.
• I went through and closed out all Backerkit folks with $1 pledges, or digital pledges with no pending charges. That leaves FOUR folks with physical orders who haven’t done their surveys. I’m going to be sending files to the printer on Feb 15, and will probably close out all Backerkit accounts Sunday night, Feb 13.
• We continue to run test-fights against a few of the apex monsters, a few of which are proving challenging to tweak out. Getting some really fun insight into monster design and rules interpretation (and a few things that were there all along) from Kromm as we go.
• Initial response to the file has been sparse but positive.
• One request I’m giving serious consideration to is adding a not-Norse name for every creature.
• Most folks are using the errata sheet like I asked. This is good as it keeps me sane.
• Paid the final licensing fee installment for 2021; SJGames did reasonably well by Gaming Ballistic in calendar 2021, I think. I hope they think so too.